1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a telecommunication network, and more particularly to a coordination-free rendezvous protocol that provides communication windows or rendezvous to devices within a bound time, regardless of network environments.
2. Description of Related Art
A telecommunication network, such as the Internet or a wireless network, is a network of devices (or nodes) configured so that information may be transferred from one device to another device or devices. The telecommunication network, as either a synchronous or an asynchronous network, mostly requires the coordination of events among the devices such that the network may work as a well-coordinated network. However, synchronization schemes utilized to coordinate among devices normally require complicated protocols and extra infrastructures.
In a network that is not well-coordinated, provision of meeting (or communication windows, or rendezvous) is thus critical for communicating efficiently between or among devices. For example, dynamic spectrum access (DSA) or cognitive radio is a promising technology used for improving spectrum utilization in a wireless network. Specifically, licensed devices in such networks should be protected from interference by secondary operations of unlicensed devices. The unlicensed devices thus have to detect the signal of licensed devices in a timely manner. However, as the unlicensed devices are uncoordinated amongst themselves, they may not effectively detect the licensed devices.
A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is another example that requires rendezvous among devices. Devices in the MANET usually enter a sleeping mode when there is no data to transmit or receive in order to preserve their limited battery power. As a result, devices that need to transfer data usually encounter deferral issues, or even in a worst-case situation, devices may not be able to reach each other forever if their sleeping patterns are not coordinated.
For the reason that devices in conventional telecommunication networks, such as of cognitive radio or MANET protocol, could not effectively meet or rendezvous each other, a need has arisen to propose a coordination-free rendezvous protocol that provides some rendezvous to the devices within a bound time, regardless of network environments.